Estelle gets her 'Freak' on for water

Had a word with Estelle about those "Freak" lyrics after she performed Sunday at the Dow Live Earth Run for Water in Minneapolis.

Kiss him, slap him, pull his hair? The world's greatest known philandering golfer, who's given hope to his hoochies while appearing on course for Splitsville, must have helped the UK singer with those particular lyrics.

"No, this song is [not] fostered about Tiger Woods and his many women," Estelle said with a hearty, enjoyable laugh that can be seen at startribune.com/video. "'Freak' was just a funny song. The chorus starts with 'I can be a freak,' and I was like, 'Um, where do you go from there?' Telling ladies to embrace the sexier, crazier, I-wouldn't-do-that side of themselves. 'Cause you really will," she said, pointing at the camera.

Nowhere near as wholesome as her big hit "American Boy," "Freak" gave pause to some in advance. Estelle was sensitive to the lyrical trepidation. From the stage, the singer -- whose eyelashes were almost as long as her hair -- encouraged children in the audience to sub the word "friend" for "freak." Of course, "friend" doesn't rhyme with "week," so that substitution could only be so satisfying.

Other problematic lyrics from the song, off her new album "All of Me," were elegantly disguised by Estelle's accent. Even when Estelle spoke directly to me, I could not decipher every word the thoroughly charming, witty singer uttered.

However, when I noted this English woman's nice teeth, I clearly understood "Why, thank you!" in her breathy, lovely, playful tone.

I wanted to know what was up between Estelle and my vicious partner in gossip, Perez Hilton, who loves Estelle! Is Perez a financial backer?

Estelle is 100 percent serious about the world's water shortage. "I'm so happy and proud to be involved. You really don't realize how many people don't have clean water until you start seeing the statistics. Kids die because of things we take for granted," she said. "We have bottled water backstage, we take two sips out of it and put it down."

Estelle eschews bottled water. She uses a refillable canister for her water, unlike some people at the event, as you can also see on my video. If there is one place where bottled water should have been verboten for a few hours on Sunday, it was this event.

Burnett avoids cameras

Word has it that Carol Burnett didn't want any photos taken when she was at the State last week for her gloriously received performance.

She also did no local TV, yet she was on "Entertainment Tonight." Those "ET" lighting techs can't be that good.

Someone who absolutely adores Burnett and saw her up close was heartbroken by the uneven quality of her face (I say treading lightly).

There may be a cautionary tale here. Since Burnett was a perfectly attractive person before she started having her face tweaked, she probably shouldn't have tampered with her looks. Could it be that Burnett was displeased with her face before and after plastic surgery?

Up the ante, Brett

ESPN's "PTI" guys got into the Winter Park jeans scene.

Tony Kornheiser: "Brett Favre gave Wrangler jeans to all of his teammates."

Mike Wilbon: "That's all you got, Brett? Come on, big boy, how about a watch or a car?"

Also on Twitter.com, Visanthe Shiancoe quipped: "Told one of my teammates to cut um up and wear them as daisy dukes hhahahaaaha."

Be careful, Vikings. The jeans might be Favre's lovely parting gifts.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject -- "Hello" doesn't count. Attachments are not opened, so don't even try. More of her attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.